Pebbles On My Window
by Cobalite
Summary: A pre season one story about Willow, Xander, and frienship. Dedicated to Tiger.
1. Willow's POV

Author's Notes: A good friend of mine, a man I consider both my brother and the one that got away, is leaving New York in a few days. Tonight, I was actually thinking of a story to write in his honor when a sound led me to my window. This story is dedicated to Tiger. Feedback to cobalite@yahoo.com

Pebbles On My Window   
By Cobalite Ice

I lie in bed, in a place between sleep and awareness. I'm trying not to think about the heat, which is just above sweltering. Just when my mind seems about to give up, and shut down, something pings my window. I stumble to my feet, and look out the window. There he was, standing there like always. I call out his name, and he shushes me. It's about then I realized I'd gone to bed in just my underwear. 

I quickly pull on a robe, knowing he hadn't noticed. He wouldn't have noticed if I'd come nude. "Xander." 

"Hey, Wills. I, uh, forgot my key again." 

"That's twice this week." I shake my head, and let him in. "What happened this time?" "I went to McDonalds around eleven and got talking to one of the guys. It was one thirty by the time I got home, and both of them were unconscious." When someone else says that, their parents are asleep. When Xander says it he means it. 

"You can stay here. You're always welcome." Especially since you're as dense as a brick and will never realize how much I care about you. "I'll go tell Mom you're here so she won't be shocked tomorrow." 

"Thanks, Wills. You're the best." 

I go into my mother's room, and wake her up. "They locked him out again." 

She looks at the clock. "Willow, it's two o'clock. Tuck him in on the couch and go to bed." 

"Just wanted to let you know." I grab the stuff from her closet that Xander always uses, and the change of clothes he keeps here. "Go change, and I'll put that stuff in the wash so it'll be clean tomorrow." 

After he changes, I watch him try to get comfortable on our couch. "People think it's strange we're such good friends, you know." "Why? We've known each other forever. Me, you and Jesse. The three Musketeers, founders of the We Hate Cordelia Club." "Xan, I know you call me Wills, but you know it's short for Willow, right? You do realize I'm a girl, that's why I had a Barbie for you to steal." 

He thinks hard, and I realize it's never occurred to him that most people of the opposite sex as close as we are usually share a bed, or similar tastes in men. I suddenly have to know. "Xander, why do you always come here? Jesse lives closer." 

For a minute, I don't think he's going to answer me. "I'm safe here." I think about coming home from babysitting one day and finding him sitting on my couch with a split lip. 

"Goodnight, Xan." 

"Night, Wills. Sleep well." He doesn't know I never sleep well knowing he's under the same roof. 

Years later, I'd finally discover he always came to me because Jesse's mom once called home to tell them where Xander was. He didn't come to school the next day. 

All too soon, Jesse was gone, and Xander and I were the two lone Musketeers. Within the week, Giles had given us keys to the library, and whenever Xander got locked out that's where he'd go. That night, the Saturday before the start of sophomore year, was the last time I ever heard pebbles on my window.


	2. Where Shall I Turn To? Xander's POV

Where Shall I Turn To By TigerBy my watch I find that it is a little after one o'

Where Shall I Turn To   
By Tiger  
  
By my watch I find that it is a little after one o'clock. I just finished eating and I'm ready to go home and crawl into bed. The walk home is a long one for two reasons, one being I live in the middle of nowhere and two I have a lot to think about. On my way out a drunken classmate who wouldn't give me the time of day sober stops me, talking nonsense. I give him a little conversation, just enough to pacify him so I can go home and go to bed.   
  
I turn up my dark street, the streetlight is out again so I can't see much but I'm lucky enough to be able to see quite well in the dark. I get to my house and reach in my pocket for my key. "Oh shit!!! I left it inside again." I said trying not to be to loud. The last time this happened I went to Willow's but I don't want to do it again that would be rude right? Nahhh, she won't mind she never does.  
  
I get to Willows house and everything is dark. "She's usually up doing something. Where is she?" I walk around back to see if her light is on. No luck her parent's room is right under hers so I don't want to make too much noise. "How do I get her without waking up her parents?" I think aloud. I grab a rock but I put it back because it's much too large. I'd end up giving her a heart attack and kill her then I still won't have a place to sleep. I grab some pebbles. I toss one up, no reaction. I toss another one up, still no reaction. It is almost two in the morning and I'm tired and getting pissed off so I take the rest of the pebbles and thow them up at her window. To my luck I see a light.  
  
Willow comes to the window in her robe. "Hey, Wills. I, uh, forgot my key again." I say not trying to sound too stupid. I know this is the second time this has happened and I don't want her mad at me.   
  
"That's twice this week." She says shaking her head. But to my happiness she comes down stairs and lets me in. "What happened this time?" she asked.   
  
"I went to McDonalds around eleven and got talking to one of the guys. It was one thirty by the time I got home, and both my parents were unconscious." I didn't want to scare her with that but the truth is the truth. "You can stay here. You're always welcome." She said.   
  
"Thanks, Wills. You're the best." She has always been a good friend to me. She goes in and tells her mom.  
  
When she comes back out she says that it is all right. She grabs my clothes out of her closet and tells me to give me the ones I'm wearing so they will be clean tomorrow. I get comfortable on the couch and ready to fall asleep when I hear her talking again.   
  
Something about being best friends, hating Cordelia and the fact that she was a girl. That made me sit up because she totally caught me off guard. I think about that last comment. It finally occurred to me that most people of the opposite sex as close as we are usually share a bed or like the same guy but not us we are, well, different.   
  
She is quiet so I assume that she is as tired as I am then she asks a question that I hoped she would never ask. "Xander, why do you always come here? Jesse lives closer."   
  
I have dreaded this question for some time. I can't answer that question truthfully not to her. I don't believe that I could tell anybody the true reason I come back to Willow. I think hard. "I'm safe here." Is all I manage to say. She didn't say anything after that so I guess she bought it. Though it is true that I am safe at Willows house there will always be another reason.   
  
"Goodnight Wills." I say to break the silence. "Sleep well."  
  
We lost Jesse not long after that. Eventually we all got keys to the library so I didn't always have to go to Willow's house in the middle of the night.   
  
One Saturday night I came to realize that nothing was the same. I was getting too close to Wills without Jesse around. She was going to find out the truth. Whenever we got to close before I would hang out with Jesse but with him gone I can't. I must stop... I have to quit seeing her. I can't take the pressure any longer. I will make tonight the last night that she ever hears pebbles on the window.


End file.
